Ural Historical Journal

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Historical Journal

‘The Politics of Good Governance’: Thomas Cromwell and the government of the southwest of England

1994 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 623-638
Author(s):  
Helen M. Speight
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Government ◽  
Historical Journal

ABSTRACTThe aim of this essay is to re-examine the government of the southwest of England in the 1530s in the light of Dr M. Robertson's essay in The Historical Journal (December 1989). Drawing on her research on Thomas Cromwell's political affinity, Dr Robertson argued that Cromwell ‘managed’ southwestern government very effectively through a system of patronage of leading local officeholders. In this essay, this thesis is challenged in two ways using research into southwestern government from a provincial perspective. Firstly, by identifying the officeholding elite of the province, examining its recruitment and tracing its activities, the practical limitations on Cromwell's power and freedom to manoeuvre in his dealings with local government are highlighted. The conclusion follows that it was, in practice, beyond Cromwell's competence to ‘manage’ southwestern government. Secondly, it is argued that ‘management’ from the centre was, in any case, potentially at least, inimical to good governance in this period because it denied local governors the scope for pragmatism and flexibility of action which were essential to effective local policing. Thus, the essay also takes issue with Professor Elton's thesis that Cromwell's revolutionary handling of local government was the key to the successful enforcement of the Reformation in the 1530s.

A Phase of the Struggle for Catholic Education: Manchester and Salford in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

1996 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominic Savio Hamer
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Elementary Education ◽  
Catholic Education ◽  
National Education ◽  
National System ◽  
Comprehensive View ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Educational Debate ◽  
Historical Journal ◽  
Roman Catholics

Writing in theCambridge Historical Journalin 1956, G.F.A. Best introduced his article on the religious difficulties of national education in England from 1800 to 1870 with the comment ‘the peculiar problems and difficulties in the way of achieving a national system of elementary education in nineteenth-century England [had] long been so obvious and notorious that a new attempt at an objective and comprehensive view must seem surprising and rash.’ He then justified his own article on the grounds that none of the works available did the subject justice because none told the whole story. In giving only fleeting mention to the educational claims of Roman Catholics, however, even Best omitted an essential of the great educational debate that was waged over England for much of the nineteenth century and that in its earlier phases found some of its more powerful voices in Manchester.

scholarly journals The National and the Social in Stalin's Political Famines

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 470-475
Author(s):  
ANDREA GRAZIOSI
Keyword(s):  
Personal Experience ◽  
Past Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
Basic Ideas ◽  
Historical Journal

Ten or more years ago I informally proposed to a friend sitting in the editorial board of a major historical journal to organise a forum on Soviet famines in the light of the new sources and interpretations that were emerging. The answer I received struck me: it was a good idea and the topic was indeed important, but times weren't yet ripe. At first I was reminded of what Mikhail Suslov supposedly told Vasily Grossman: people weren't yet ready for Life and Destiny, whose essential ‘truth’ he did not therefore question. Then, I came to the conclusion that the answer was in itself a sign of the relevance of the topic and of its potential impact upon our reading of the past century. In fact, as I will try to briefly show in my conclusions, within Soviet famines keys can be found that open doors to an array of new, conceptual questions which force us to reconsider many of our basic ideas and representations. This is for historians a fascinating opportunity, but it can also prove a harrowing personal experience, so that in a way my colleague – being unquestionably wrong – was also unquestionably right: big questions have their times, and we can ‘force’ these times only up to a point, and at a risk, as is often the case with ‘forcing’.

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